Publication

Social Finance Working Paper #55: ROKIN Bank

13 October 2011

The story of workers’ organizations that successfully promote financial inclusion

Event

Water in the Green Economy in Practice: Towards Rio+20

The event placed a special focus in showcasing already successful projects of how water can be a major contributor to developing a green economy. At the end of the conference, UN-Water issued a draft best practice guide to actions, instruments and policies to progress towards a green economy for sustainable development and poverty eradication. The ILO participated and contributed to the conference.

Publication

Skills for Green Jobs: A Global View

06 October 2011

This volume examines the experiences of 21 developed and developing countries in adjusting their training provision to meet the new demands of a greener economy. It shows that skills development is critical to unlocking the employment potential of green growth, yet skills shortages are becoming an obstacle in realizing this potential. The report recommends that countries devise strategies based on well-informed policy decisions, social dialogue, and coordination among ministries and between employers and training providers.

Publication

Mongolia – The enabling environment for sustainable enterprises and a framework for SME growth and development

04 October 2011

Employment Sector - Employment Report No. 12

Publication

Impact Insurance Research Paper #8: Social networks and insurance take-up

01 October 2011

Research Paper #8 estimates the role of information in insurance take-up using data from a randomized experiment in rural China where information was either offered directly through financial education or accessed indirectly through social networks. Unlike previous studies, the experimental design allows to not only identify the causal effect of social networks, but also to differentiate the various channels through which they operate, including improvement of negotiating power, imitation, and social learning of insurance benefits. The results show that social networks have a large and significant effect on insurance take-up decisions mainly driven by the social learning of insurance benefits. The policy implication is that offering financial education to a subset of households in a village community selected for their strong friendship links with others, their recognized farming skills, and leadership roles, and relying on social networks to extend its effect on more farmers through social learning, is an effective way of improving insurance take-up.

Publication

Briefing Note #11: Third-party payment mechanisms in health microinsurance: Practical tips and solutions

01 October 2011

The third-party payment (TPP) mechanism is a model where insured patients are not required to pay the cost of health services covered by the insurance at the time the services are rendered. While the TTP (also called "cashless") mechanism is not new in health insurance, setting up and managing a TPP mechanism for a health microinsurance scheme presents unique challenges. Briefing Note #11 draws on the experience of various health microinsurance schemes and presents the pros and cons of using a TPP mechanism. It also presents key issues to address when establishing and managing a TPP mechanism, as well as tips and solutions collected from cases studies and experts' interviews.

Publication

Impact Insurance Working Paper #13: Third party payment mechanism in health microinsurance

01 October 2011

Some health microinsurance (HMI) schemes require that patients pay cash at the time of receiving health care services, and then seek reimbursement from the insurer at a later date. For low-income households, this can be a severe financial barrier. One common way to alleviate this barrier is to set up a third-party payment (TPP) mechanism with selected health care providers. A TPP mechanism is a model for claims payment in which insured patients are not required to pay the entire cost of health services covered by the HMI scheme at the time the services are rendered. This paper draws on the experience of various health microinsurance schemes and presents the pros and cons of using a TPP mechanism. It also presents key issues to address when establishing and managing a TPP mechanisms, as well as tips and solutions collected from case studies and experts` interviews.

Event

Making the Strongest Links: Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analysis

Publication

Impact Insurance Research Paper #7: Establishing an index insurance triggers for crop loss in Northern Ghana

01 September 2011

As a consequence of climate change, agriculture in many parts of the world has become a riskier business activity. Given the dependence on agriculture in developing countries, this increased risk has a potentially dramatic effect on the lives of people throughout the developing world especially as it relates to their financial inclusion and sustainable access to capital. Research Paper #7 analyses the relationships between rainfall per crop gestation period and crop yields and studies the likelihood of crop yield losses. It makes recommendations on how this information could be used to develop a trigger for index insurance to help mitigate the financial risks to farmers and lenders who make loans to farmers in Ghana. The paper concludes by describing limitations and challenges that must be overcome in order to develop such risk management tools and by describing the potential for crop loss index insurance based on area crop yield in northern Ghana.

Publication

Briefing Note #10: Improving client value from microinsurance: Insights from India, Kenya and the Philippines

01 September 2011

Are clients benefiting from microinsurance? How do we measure those benefits? How do we improve the value proposition for the clients? Briefing Note #10 contributes to this discussion by focusing on improving client value rather than proving it. It presents results from the analysis of 15 microinsurance schemes in Kenya, India and the Philippines using the ILO's client value assessment tool called PACE (Product, Access, Cost and Experience). The PACE tool looks at the added value for clients from insurance products by comparing them to each other and to alternative means of offering protection from similar risks. The results show that there is a place for microinsurance to add value on the top of informal risk-sharing practices and existing social security schemes to protect low-income populations against life and health risks. The paper presents also a menu of interventions that can further improve client value from microinsurance.